


Graduated Feelings

by slof



Series: One hundred ways to say 'I love you' [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drabble, I'm sorry ngl, Idk tags sorry wtf, Is this even fluff I honestly think it's more angsty, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26471290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slof/pseuds/slof
Summary: Hinata would be back to link up with Kageyama, but for now, they had to go on their own for a bit.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Series: One hundred ways to say 'I love you' [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1921759
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	Graduated Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> FOR JAY I LOVE YOU BAE

Not that it was any bother to Hinata Shouyou but he was short. Even while growing up, Shouyou was considered short. Often times in high school people asked him if he were a middle schooler. He’d argue and bicker with them  _ (‘I’m a high schooler!’)  _ to which they would usually point and laugh. That was until someone taller came by that was on his team and confirmed that Shouyou was, in fact, older than he seemed to be. Though he grew up experiencing this, and Shouyou never let it bother him. He wanted to be  _ The Little Giant, _ after all. To be someone short yet strong, influence other people like  _ The Little Giant _ of his inspiration had done when he was a kid. Shouyou wanted to be to others what  _ The Little Giant _ was to him, and he worked toward it through his years of high school.

He didn’t grow as much as he had hoped he would as he made his way through school, though that didn’t mean that it would get the little shrimp down. Shouyou was determined to be the ace of Karasuno -- that had been his current short-term goal at the time. His first year for that had been a complete bust, the little ten had a lot of developing and working to do before he could get that far even with his genius setter by his side. 

In his second year, Shouyou didn’t quite make the cut for that either. The co-captain of the team deemed the rank of the ace. That didn’t mean that Shouyou was upset over it though. If anything, he was happy for his upperclassman having noticed and taken note of the pure strength and talent that he had worked hard for. Shouyou remembered the day he walked into Karasuno’s gym in his second year and congratulated his teammate even before anything had been made official  _ ('Congratulations, Tanaka-senpai! You’re the ace! You’re the ace!’). _

When Shouyou finally made it to his third year, he was where he wanted to be in that short-term goal of his, and maybe he was even accomplished a little bit more. Shouyou claimed the title of the  _ Ace of Karasuno _ and co-captain of the team. He wore the jersey that the former ace wore from when Shouyou was in his second year and his highly respected senpai from when Shouyou was in his first. 

Not only that, but Shouyou was, throughout all of high school, given the title of  _ The Hidden Decoy _ , and he didn’t just come up with this himself. Actually, he couldn’t come up with this himself because, without the person who had coined him as  _ The Hidden Decoy _ , he would’ve never been  _ The Hidden Decoy _ in the first place.

It was given to Shouyou by the setter that was in his year with him. He had first joined with Shouyou, and the two were vicious rivals at first, always head to head, always arguing with each other, always disagreeing. It took them a while, but they soon fell in sync, able to work and almost telepathically speak on what they wanted to do in the heat of a match. 

In his second year, the duo was even stronger. The six and seven jerseys were one to be feared by many schools including past opponents that used to be a big challenge like Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa who had both lost their star players the previous year. They had an attack that many new first years weren’t ready for and their second and third years had not been expecting the upgraded spike. 

By the team they reached their third year, the two of them were number one and number two jerseys, ace and setter, captain and co-captain of Karasuno. Best friends? Maybe even best friends. Shouyou would’ve called them that -- he would’ve called them that in their first year, though he wasn’t quite too sure what the other would say, not until it was the day they graduated.

  
  


Shouyou stood in the middle of one of the sides of the volleyball court. The gym was empty aside from the scattered volleyballs and few empty bottles of water -- Shouyou bought them straight from the vending machine instead of refilling his bottle just out of pure impatience. It had been a waste of money but the former member of Karasuno didn’t care. 

He reached into the cart, pulling out the last volleyball. His hand fit around it, and Shouyou palmed the ball, stretching it out in front of him and holding it with just one hand. He smiled, yet another short-term goal had been completed.

“Hinata.”

Shouyou let his hand fall to his side, still holding onto the ball as he looked to the voice -- the voice that he had heard grow to sink into the deep sound that it was now. It was a voice that Shouyou had many times before yell  _ ‘Hinata!’, ‘Over here!’, ‘Nice kill!’. _

And now that high school was over with, Shouyou feared that he’d never hear that voice call those things toward him again. Shouyou planned on heading to Brazil after school, he had already learned everything that he’d need to take on the challenge. He was ready to take on a new version of the sport, meet new people, experience different things.

Shouyou had to do that all without his other half.

  
  


“Kageyama.”

Kageyama Tobio. The rival of Shouyou’s mind that plucked strings in the decoy’s heart in unexpectable patterns. Shouyou knew by their first year that he was rival with Tobio, actually, he knew well before that, though he had always expected it to be a negative rivalry full of constant threats and pure hatred. By the end of their first year, it hadn’t been anything like that, and the two were seen as good friends.  Their friendship kept adapting, growing with their way of communication and technique on the court. It was one of the things that had made them such a threat to others, the two seemed inseparable. 

They only wished that they were, because here was Shouyou about to split from Tobio and leave to a whole new part of the world. 

“Hey,” Shouyou added on, and he tossed the volleyball back in the cart. It bounced a few times until it stilled being the last thing in the gym to sound for a few moments. 

Tobio stood by the door, the Karasuno jacket on his back and zipped up all the way to the collar, the black shorts, calf-high, white socks, black shoes with orange highlights. His hair had changed through the years, Tobio controlled his hair way more than Shouyou had. He changed it more to a middle part than from the random parting it had been in his first year. Meanwhile, Shouyou let his grow out just a bit longer and go wild -- he planned to cut it after having left for Brazil.

“It’s a lot to think about, isn’t it?”

“What is?” Shouyou asked.

“How far we’ve come,” Tobio said as he repositioned the bag on his shoulder. He looked around the gym as he walked in, gazing around the room as if it was his first time walking in the gym. His eyes flickered around but eventually landed on the decoy in front of him. “You sucked at first.”

“I know,” Shouyou said with a small laugh. “You remind me.  _ A lot _ .”

“Good.” Tobio looked over Shouyou out one of the windows behind him. There was a slight hint of a smile on his face, Shouyou liked it when Tobio smiled. Not the forced, strained smiles they had been back in their first year when people told Tobio that he didn’t smile much  _ (‘Come on, Kageyama! Smile!’). _ No, this smile was soft, genuine, and it made Shouyou’s mind sputter a bit out of control. “Then know that you’re nothing like that this year. You’re good. Really, really good, Hinata.”

“Thank you.”

“Just not as good as me.” Shouyou squinted at Tobio, and the setter put his attention to him as he felt the glare from the other. 

And they started chuckling, falling into a laugher filled with hands on each other’s shoulders and arms wrapped around their stomachs. Their laughs echoed in the empty gym reminding them that it was just the two of them; it reminded them that this was the last time they’d hear their laughs together, alone, and echoed against the walls of the gym sounding right back to them -- them. Just the two of them. 

Their laughter died down, falling into silence in the room as the sound rested on the floor to nothing. A whistling came from outside, breezing its way through the left-open gym door to chill in the room around them.

Tobio stared down at his hands, fingers wrapping around his others as he inspected his hands. Maybe he was being overdramatic but he felt gloomy feeling as his eyes scanned the lines on his fingertips. His last set to Shouyou had already been done the day before, and he had only just realized it.

Shouyou’s gaze was held to the gym floor which looked as if it didn’t have a single scratch; it was still shiny and new even through all the shoes that had ran over and beaten down on it; it still looked brand and ready to use. He was still ready to run against the planks, move his arms back, jump and swing his arms for momentum, then slam a ball down on the other side of the court. His last spike he had carried out with Tobio had already been completed the day before, and he, too, had only just realized it.

  
  


The little red looked over to the former crow, a sad smile on his face as he let out a silent sigh. “And this is it,” he whispered.

Tobio nodded. “This is it.” He let out a soft chuckle and moved his hands to his pockets. “If it’s worth anything, I hope we get on the same team again in the future -- just after I kick your ass a few more times.” Shouyou frowned at first, but it twisted into a smile, and he laughed. He couldn’t stop himself either when he found that he was already stepping toward Tobio and wrapping his arms around him.

There was a dryness in the back of his throat as he clasped his hands together behind Tobio, squeezing him tighter than he had originally planned on. Shouyou was afraid at first, not because he thought that Tobio would punch him in the gut for hugging or touching him, it had stopped being like that ever since last year. He was afraid Tobio wouldn’t return the feelings.

Shouyou had always been afraid of that, knowing there was a connection between them but not knowing just quite how far that stretched to. At first, Shouyou had thought it was admiration toward Tobio, and maybe it was. He thought Tobio was amazing, a genius, one of a kind -- and he was, Tobio really was. Though as Shouyou progressed into his second year, it grew more into just respect for the other.

It was care in how he wanted Tobio to succeed; it was concern in the times when Tobio had been feeling down; it was an understanding in being able to read Tobio like an open book even though he only spoke to Shouyou with his eyes; it was sympathy for the other when he knew just how he felt after both losing the same match; it was affection but not in the same way it was a concern, or an understanding, or sympathetic. 

It was affection because Shouyou fell in love with Tobio throughout the years. Shouyou hadn’t even been shocked when he realized. At the time nearing the end of his second year when he pieced it all together, staring at the spinning ceiling fan as he laid on his back on his bed, Shouyou had just shrugged and thought,  _ ‘Who wouldn’t have fallen?’ _ . 

  
  


Shouyou didn’t have to worry about it though, not when Tobio wrapped his arms around the shorter one and let his chin rest on the top of his head. 

Tobio smelled like volleyballs which wasn’t surprising to Shouyou at all. Like the new Mikasa volleyballs, a scent that made Shouyou feel like he was a first-year back in junior high again, laying on his back in the middle of the living room as he practiced setting to himself. His sister would crawl around, merely just a baby at the time, and Shouyou would have to be careful because, of course, she wanted to play. It reminded him of home, a calm feeling that many people found through rainy weather while curled up on the couch with a book.

Without words, the two pulled away from the hug, but they only added a few inches of space between them. Tobio’s hand reached up to Shouyou’s cheek, the cold palm sending a shock that drummed down Shouyou’s spine. It made Shouyou lean into Tobio more as if he could somehow dodge the inner feeling that shifted around in his gut.

“Hinata.”

“Mhm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Shouyou was frozen then for a second, the feeling that had been doing laps up and down his spine had felt like it stopped, the twirling in his stomach dropped, and Shouyou felt as if the butteries flies inside of him weren’t getting tired anytime soon.

“Yeah,” he said, finding himself speaking in a whisper.

Tobio didn’t seem hesitant when he leaned in, hell, he never seemed hesitant about anything, and that was one of the things that Shouyou loved about him. 

Shouyou's lips melted with his, maybe even in the sense that Tobio’s lips were cold, and his lips burned; when Tobio put his own to the other’s it was as if the heat from Shouyou’s melted Tobio’s to fit.

He placed his hand at the front of Tobio’s jacket, palm flat on his chest as he sighed into the kiss. Shouyou couldn’t stop himself from smiling, the taste of the other’s mouth as it was pressed against his was sweet, the tingling on his lips that matched the same feeling that Shouyou felt in his fingertips.

They pulled away, and no more words were exchanged as Tobio nudged his head in the direction of the gym doors. Shouyou just simply gave a nod, slipped on his jacket, picked up his bag, and followed Tobio out of the gym. The lowerclassman would clean up the gym in the morning, it wasn’t something they had to worry about anymore.

The two had a long future ahead of them filled with the small rivalry and neverending competitions. A close friendship, and soon enough, they’d be more than just that.

But for now, they had to part ways. Shouyou would be back, and it’d be a few years, both of them knew that, but he’d be back.

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter @mattsuhana


End file.
